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Hydrogen peroxide-induced mitophagy contributes to laryngeal cancer cells survival via the upregulation of FUNDC1

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of our study was to investigate an underlying mechanism that hydrogen peroxide-induced mitophagy contributed to laryngeal cancer cells survivals under oxidative stress condition.

Methods

Tumor tissue and serum samples were collected from patients with laryngeal cancer. The Hep2 cell, a human laryngeal carcinoma cell, was used in in vitro experiments. The levels of lipid peroxidation were analyzed by ELISA. Knockdown of FUNDC1 was performed by RNAi. The changes of target proteins were determined by qRT-PCR and western blot. The cells were analyzed for changes in proliferation using cell counting kit-8 and mitophagy by the mitochondrial membrane potential assay and transmission electron microscopy.

Results

FUNDC1 in laryngeal cancer tissues were relative to the levels of lipid peroxidation in laryngeal cancer patients, which suggested that FUNDC1 was associated with the status of oxidative stress in the laryngeal cancer patients. Hydrogen peroxide significantly induced the elevation of FUNDC1, a mitophagic factor, in a time- and dose-dependent manner in laryngeal cancer cells, which was dependent on ERK signal activation. Knockdown of FUNDC1 by the siRNA attenuated the survival of laryngeal cancer cells under hydrogen peroxide stimulation. Moreover, the elevated FUNDC1 was required for the occurrence of mitophagy under hydrogen peroxide stimulation, which was identified by transmission electron microscopy, the alterations of mitochondrial permeability transition and the specific mitochondrial protein, hsp60. Inhibition of mitophagy with cyclosporine A could also effectively attenuate the laryngeal cancer cells survival under hydrogen peroxide stimulation.

Conclusions

Hydrogen peroxide upregulated the expression of FUNDC1 through the activation of ERK1/2 signal to trigger a mitophagic response, giving laryngeal cancer cells a befit for survival. These findings suggested that FUNDC1 might be a potential target for the treatment of laryngeal cancer accompanied with high lipid peroxidation status.

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Abbreviations

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

FUNDC1:

FUN14 domain-containing protein 1

CMU:

China Medical University

MDA:

Malondialdehyde

siRNA:

Small interfering RNA

HRP:

Horseradish peroxidase

CCK-8:

Cell Counting Kit-8

GPX3:

Glutathione peroxidase 3

IOD:

Integrated optical density

MPT:

Mitochondrial permeability transition

CsA:

Cyclosporine A

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a grant from the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province of P. R. China (No. 201202287).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, No. 155 Nanjing Bei Street, Shenyang, 110001, People’s Republic of China

    L. Hui, H. Wu, N. Yang, X. Guo & X.-J. Jang

  2. Bishop Alemany High School, Mission Hills, CA, USA

    T.-W. Wang

Authors
  1. L. Hui
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  2. H. Wu
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  3. T.-W. Wang
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  4. N. Yang
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  5. X. Guo
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  6. X.-J. Jang
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Contributions

LH and X-JJ participated in the design of the study. HW and NY participated in the specimen collection. HW, NY and XG performed the cellular and molecular experiments. NY and HL collected clinical data and performed the statistical analysis. LH and T-WW drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. Hui.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest and declare no competing financial interests relevant to this article.

Ethics statement

Institutional review board approval of China Medical University was obtained for this study. All clinical experiments were performed under the guidelines of the Ethics Committee of the hospital, and the Declaration of Helsinki.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Cite this article

Hui, L., Wu, H., Wang, TW. et al. Hydrogen peroxide-induced mitophagy contributes to laryngeal cancer cells survival via the upregulation of FUNDC1. Clin Transl Oncol 21, 596–606 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-018-1958-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-018-1958-5

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